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Contest News

Zoetrope Names Contest Winner

Germaphobe in a Sex Club (pilot), by Jessica Ennis and Caitlin Cronenberg, has been selected as the Winner from among nearly 2,000 submissions to the 2025 American Zoetrope Screenwriting Competition.

Winner:
Germaphobe in a Sex Club (pilot) by Jessica Ennis and Caitlin Cronenberg (Brooklyn, NY)

Finalists:
Bad Moon Rising (pilot) by S. Dylan Zwickel (New York, NY)
Bud and Sandi Leave New York by Gerard Zarra (New York, NY)
Collision (pilot) by Todd Trotter (Sherman Oaks, CA)
Depth of Field by Josh Carter (New York, NY)
The Fleet Foot by Michael Begg (Metairie, LA)
Golden Hour by Maureen McEly (Cincinnati, OH)
The Graveyard Shift (pilot) by Briana Rayner and Marisa Chandler (Vancouver, Canada)
Lonely Boy by Aaron Keene and Sara Katarina (Brooklyn, NY)
The Polski Affair by Kenneth Gildin (Los Angeles, CA)

Semifinalists:
Awake by Julia Bottarelli (Naperville, IL)
Bounce House by Christopher Ewing and Callie Bloem (Los Angeles, CA)
Boy in the Back Seat by Scott Pickup (Welwyn Garden City, England)
Carlotta by Bill Hochhauser (Johns Creek, GA)
Even the Brightest Girls | 春蚕祭 by Vivian Ip (Los Angeles, CA)
Inside the Outside (pilot) by Greg Lastrapes and Martin Lastrapes (Glendale, CA)
Maleficium by Dayna Noffke (Decatur, GA)
Mauritius (pilot) by Philippe Benoit (Lafayette, CA)
Polar Break by Thomas DiGiacinto (Hollis, NH)
Tinderbox by Adam Stier (Blue Ash, OH)

Quarterfinalists:
Anne Boleyn Smith by David Burch (Bridlington, England)
The Dulce Incident by Thomas Ortiz (Escondido, CA)
Frankenstalien by Tanner Matthews (Long Beach, CA)
Galentine’s Day by Carlos Gabriel Ruiz (Saint Louis, MO)
Non | Binary (pilot) by Zachary Hill (Lakewood, CO)
Queerbait by Nate Gualtieri (Los Angeles, CA)
Reckoning by Adam Albanese (Toronto, Canada)
The River Where Blood Is Born (pilot) by Sandra Jackson-Opoku (Chicago, IL)
The Suitcase of Somewhere by Michael Layne Jr. (Brooklyn, NY)
Sundowning by Shay Michael (Hermosa Beach, CA)


The winners will receive the grand prize of $5,000.

The winners and nine finalists will be considered for representation by the agencies CAA, Circle of Confusion, Energy Entertainment, Exile Entertainment, the Gersh Agency, ICM, Oasis Media Group, the Radmin Company, UTA, and William Morris Endeavor. Their scripts will be considered for option and development by the production companies American Zoetrope, Anonymous Content, ARRAY, Cats & Dogs Productions, Double Hope Films, Fox Searchlight, Groundswell Productions, Icon Films, IFC Films, Jean Doumanian Productions, Lionsgate, LIT Entertainment Group, Lleju Productions, Netflix, Number 9 Films, Oasis Media Group, Pretty Pictures Productions, Roserock Films, Sony Pictures Classics, Verisimilitude, and Working Title Films.

The 2026 American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition will open to entries June 1; the deadline is September 9.

Updated: 02/09/2026

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